Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker recently signed the Neonatal Intensive Care Leave Act (NICLA, Public Act 104-0259) into law, introducing new leave entitlements for employees with a child in a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). Set to take effect on June 1, 2026, the law applies to employers with sixteen or more employees and provides unpaid leave for parents during a child’s NICU hospitalization.

• Effective June 1, 2026, Illinois’s Neonatal Intensive Care Leave Act (NICLA) provides unpaid leave for parents with a child in a NICU, applicable to employers with sixteen or more employees.
• NICLA leave is separate from FMLA leave and offers additional protections for employees with newborns in intensive care.
• NICLA prohibits employers from retaliating against workers who take leave, assert their right to take leave, or otherwise support others who do so.

The amount of leave required under NICLA depends on the size of the employer:

• Employers with fifteen or fewer employees are not covered by the law.
• Employers with sixteen to fifty employees must provide up to ten days of unpaid leave while an employee’s child is a patient in a NICU.
• Employers with more than fifty employees must offer up to twenty days of unpaid leave.

NICLA leave is available to employees regardless of their length of service or part-time or full-time status. The leave can be taken intermittently or continuously, and employers may establish a minimum increment of time in which leave may be used, as long...

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